The fire had run out of firewood. The bonfire extinguished a few minutes later. They had made the use of it anyway so they didn't mind it taking a rest as well. Now the forest was pitch dark. One wouldn't be able to see his own hand in front of him. Soleiman tried to sleep for a while but the sleep evaded him. He stared out into the darkness around him, half expecting to find something that he didn't want to. Time flowed in an agonizingly slow pace. The bugs didn't feel ashamed in announcing their presence. He called out to his companion in a whisper and was glad to find him awake at that hour. Mustafa's night wasn't going any quicker itself.
"Would you give them another chance?", Soleiman casually asked. Mustafa fought the urge to ask his friend politely to shut up. He felt like he was talking to an overenthusiastic child that believed in the "Good always Wins".
"Would you?", he asked Soleiman back.
"I would have had a hard time doing it if my friends had suffered the same fate as yours did, but duty is duty".
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you think they wanna kill you and your friends?", Mustafa sat up and asked him, expecting him to lack the answer.
"Maybe because they didn't want an alien to barge into their lands and defy their idols", Soleiman responded but he had got the hint from the question that there was more to it than that.
"I wish you were less naïve", the Turk responded and confirmed Soleiman's doubts.
"Is there more?", said Soleiman, clearly confused. Mustafa wished there was enough illumination to make out his friend's expressions.
"How often did you visit the temple?", Mustafa quizzed.
"Only a handful of times", he got the grasp of the seriousness of the query and added, "Three times to be precise".
"And the Chief's place?"
"Never. I only met him once inside the temple in one of my visits".
"Ever find anything… odd?", Mustafa asked hesitantly.
"Odd?", Soleiman was genuinely confused but he knew that he lacked the knowledge that his companion didn't seem to.
"You know, stumbled upon something that you weren't supposed to see or hear?", Mustafa implored his friend to remember some precise moment that made him feel unwelcome in the village. Soleiman thought long and hard, scratching his head and nothing came up.
"Nothing rings a bell", he finally said. Soleiman was getting agitated. All that suspense was not helping his already troubled head. "Come on! Quit it! where are you going with this?", he finally gave up.
"They are cutting up loose ends. They don't want us to talk to their people", Mustafa put forward. Soleiman was still foggy so he explained further. "They do all sorts of unspeakable things and don't let the people know about it but the outsiders are not afraid of them so they resort to violence", he continued.
"But what 'unspeakable thing' could I have possibly walked into without even knowing it?", Soleiman pleaded. His mind running in overdrive.
"I don't know. I showed up to the tribal leader's house uninvited and found him torturing a bunch of villagers to give up their inherited lands. I stepped away thinking that my arrival had gone unnoticed. I haven't been so wrong in my life!", Mustafa told the tale of his misfortune. Soleiman held his breath and listened. "I didn't plan on snitching on him because I didn't even know what precisely was going on but the leader mobilized his people just in case if I did".
"You must have pressed a nerve. If they had any problem with preachers, they wouldn't have wasted their meals on us", Mustafa continued.
Soleiman thought long and hard for something to come up from the depths of his memory. "Wait a sec!", Soleiman exclaimed. He was slapping his forehead wondering how had he missed such an obvious answer. Mustafa keenly awaited the revelation. "The apprentices of the temple had expressly prohibited me from visiting the temple in specific hours and when I asked my native students about it, they suggested that I listen to them because some rather forceful rituals are performed in those hours. So, I adhered to their orders", Soleiman said.
"But one day, an apprentice invited me to the temple in the forbidden duration. I was reluctant at first but then I thought who better to know the religious customs than the apprentices, and I accepted. It was the only time that I entered the temple without the constant surveillance of an apprentice. When I entered the temple, I saw a group of brightly dressed little girls of under ten years of age, playing in the indoor area of sacrifices and rituals", Soleiman daydreamed as he told his experience.
"You mean the Circle of Power?", asked Mustafa. "The religious guys at the place I stayed in always talked about it", he continued as he sensed that Soleiman might think how could Mustafa have known.
"I don't know. I just moved past them and towards the room of the Shaman. The entire temple was dimly lit and only the Shaman's room was illuminated to its fullest. I was ready for any level of mental disturbance a distressing ritual may possibly inflict but nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed in there. Two apprentices were carrying out an inanimate body of girl out of the Shaman's room. I couldn't make out the size or the face but the hair told me the gender. At first, I thought that she had been a subject of their exorcisms that involved all sorts of risks. But then I caught a glimpse of the Shaman re-dressing himself on his bed. Oh! It was something else. I ran out".
"Isn't all that a known fact?", asked Mustafa.
"It is. People know that the Shaman and others pleasure themselves with the women of the village. The villagers seem to be fine about it. But now that I think about that event… I'm pretty sure that the lifeless girl was wrapped in the similar clothes that the girls playing outside were wearing", Soleiman spoke in horror, his mind barely keeping up with his own words. He placed his hand on his mouth in disbelief and felt a tear flow drip down his face. There was a long silence. Mustafa was equally shaken by the disclosure.
"Are you certain?", Mustafa whispered after a while. Soleiman barely managed to make out a "Yes".
"That's the reason he wants you dead!", Mustafa exclaimed.
"I don't think the people would retaliate against the Shaman. He has a firm religious hold on them", said Soleiman.
"The tiniest of sparks can grow into a wildfire. And besides, if you telling the people didn't pose a threat to him, he wouldn't have tried to get rid of you", Mustafa responded. "But I'm in no mood to start a revolution. We need to get away from this mess", he continued. The weight on the eyelids had finally arrived and they welcomed it with open arms. The preachers were finally acquainted with their crimes but that didn't seem to lighten the burden of anxiety.